well-known to your editor—this infamous lie 
was quite strictly murderous :  for a man may 
be done to death by venomous libels far less 
mercifully than by cruder poisons. 
 
11.  My Lord, you cannot escape the gravest 
personal responsibility in this matter. 
Your editor could not, with any private resour-
ces of his own, undertake a protracted news-
paper campaign of libel.  It is your wealth, 
in particular, that he relies on when he challenges 
Mr. Crowley to fill his pockets by means of an 
action at law.  It is your capital, in various 
kinds, that he uses in order to collect anonymous 
gossip, purchase slanderous interviews, and give 
to his calumnies a world-wide publicity.  You 
cannot avoid moral responsibility for his dis-
honourable abuse of the power which you have 
put into his hands.  If you could not prevent 
his infamous libels, you are bound to redress 
the wrong as soon as it is pointed out to you. 
In putting into the hands of unscrupulous 
scoundrels the power to bring innocent persons, 
virtually defenceless, to starvation, you—a Peer 
of the Realm, one of the chosen guardians of 
its public honour, a representative of the illus-
trious traditions of English chivalry—are helping 
to degrade the standards of public morality 
and honour. 
 
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